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The First Comprehensive Report on Digital Surveillance in Cuba, presented by the organization Prisoners Defenders, documents through direct testimonies how the State has built a surveillance system that permeates the digital, familial, and emotional lives of citizens both inside and outside the island.
Based on 200 statements from Cubans living both in Cuba and in exile, the study reveals that surveillance is neither sporadic nor accidental, but rather a sustained State policy, intertwined with police repression, the discretionary use of punitive laws, and the manipulation of access to the Internet.
The most compelling fact is that 98.5% of those who reported indicated that they had suffered threats, summonses, sanctions, detentions, or reprisals against family members due to their digital activities or private communications.
Cuban authorities not only monitor public posts on social media platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, or X. The report documents how private messages, audio clips, screenshots, and even one-on-one conversations were referenced during police interrogations, often without the affected individuals being aware that they were being surveilled.
Almost half of the respondents detected unauthorized access to their accounts, password changes, or messages sent from their profiles without consent, while others reported being forced to unlock their phones and provide passwords during detentions or interrogations.
Digital surveillance, according to the report, does not remain on the screen. After a critical post or an uncomfortable conversation, the control often shifts to the street and the home. More than 84% of participants reported noticing physical surveillance following their online activity, with patrols in front of their homes, people watching from the street, follow-ups on motorcycles or cars, and warning visits. In some cases, the installation of cameras in front of homes was even reported, creating a climate of ongoing intimidation.
Control is also exerted through connectivity. Only 5% of those surveyed reported not experiencing issues with their Internet access. Selective data cuts, social media blocks, intentional speed degradation, blackouts during protests, and restrictions on the use of VPNs are repeatedly described, especially on symbolic dates like July 11 or during political trials.
This is compounded by the high cost of service and the low quality of the connection, factors that, according to the report, are part of a structural digital divide sustained by the state monopoly on telecommunications.
One of the most painful aspects of the report is the impact on families. Repercussions are not limited to the person who publishes or speaks out; they extend to parents, partners, children, and siblings.
Arrests, threats, summons, loss of employment, and issues within the educational system emerge as common mechanisms to pressure and silence. Even Cubans in exile have recounted how their relatives on the island were punished for posts made from abroad, confirming that surveillance and repression extend beyond national borders.
The result of this framework is a sustained climate of fear. More than half of the respondents acknowledged having changed their digital behavior, stopping their political postings, deleting old messages, leaving messaging groups, closing accounts, or resorting to anonymity.
Fear permeates all channels of communication, from phone calls to social media and encrypted applications, with no space perceived as truly safe.
The report concludes that digital surveillance in Cuba operates as a comprehensive system of social control, aimed at neutralizing dissent, fragmenting civic networks, and provoking self-censorship. The authors warn that this is not just about technology; it is a political model that uses fear as a tool for governance, impacting not only freedom of expression but also the private, family, and emotional lives of millions of Cubans.
During the presentation of the report, which took place this Tuesday remotely, the president of Prisoners Defenders, Javier Larrondo, expressed concern about the level of "self-censorship" that the system has caused on the island.
"It is tremendous the level of self-censorship… (there is) terror in the population for posting on social networks or even speaking on WhatsApp," he said according to the agency Efe.
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